I said that a lot.
People found my house easily when I had a blue door. But I got tired of it...I really wanted a red door. But, since I have blue and white trim, a red door wasn't happening until I changed the trim colors.
I love my country but, well, that would be a little much.
As a compromise, a couple of years ago I painted my door a beautiful deep brown. But telling people it's the log house with a brown door didn't seem to work. I'd see them drive right past and have to go out and flag them down.
I decided this summer was The Year of The Red Door.
It kind of felt a little frivolous, painting my trim just so I could have a red door. Then I got to really looking at it. How did I miss how tired it had become? The paint had actually peeled in places. Ew. It had to go.
Then I started looking at the posts that hold up my porch roof. Then I noticed the deck.
Mercifully, I stopped there.
I tackled the posts first; piece of cake. Then I started on the deck, and I learned a little something-something.
1. Go to a regular paint store and get the good stuff. Listen to their instructions and follow them.
2. If you buy water based stain at a store where the employees are clueless, you'll end up with dark lines in the places where you rolled, then stopped to paint the cracks, then started rolling again. The good stuff is oil based.
3. See #1.
4. You have to bend down, sit down, and stand up approximately 2000 times when painting a deck.
5. See #1, they'll sell you stuff that makes it easier on your thighs.
6. A second coat of the cheap stuff doesn't really solve the problem.
7. See #1.
8. Make sure your back door is unlocked before you stain the entire front deck.
Now to tackle the trim. I decided it would be easier to pull my little white trim boards down and paint them separately from the main trim board. That went pretty well on the lower roof. However, I learned a few things when I got on the porch roof to start working up there.
1. My son's old skate shoes do not have sufficient traction to be on a roof.
2. Bare feet are better than old skate shoes.
3. It's possible to break a 2x2 when trying to remove it.
4. There are lots of crawly things on roofs.
Next, I drove to town. I learned a few more things.
1. The paint store employees have great knowledge about paint.
2. The paint store paint costs a fortune.
3. Payless Shoes has these amazing tennis shoes with gripper soles. $27.99 is a very reasonable price when you start thinking about broken bones and stuff. Besides, I'm pretty sure Spiderman wears these shoes and I want to be cool like him.
4. It's okay to go back to the coffee shop and complain if they put too much foam in your coffee.
(Actually, I already knew about #4.)
I came home and painted all the blue trim on the front of my house brown. I also painted my arms and clothes. I like to fully submerge myself in my work.
It's all looking pretty good, I must say. Tomorrow, if the sun is still shining, I'll paint the little trim boards white then nail them back up. And hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I will finally have a red door.
Then I can say, "Turn right, then right again. It's the first house on the right; two story log house with brown trim on the front and blue trim on the other three sides.
Oh. And a red door."
